Apparatus for supplying burnable fluid and entrained air to a burner

ABSTRACT

Combustible fluid, which may or may not contain particulate solid material, has a large amount of air homogeneously dispersed throughout a stream of such fluid, whereby it is airlifted as a stream from a source thereof to an incinerator burner nozzle as a light froth.

United States Patent Inventor Eugene W. Hines Saline, Mich. App]. No. 748,105 Filed July 26, 1968 Patented Oct. 5, 1971 I Assignee Prenco Manufacturing Co.

Royal Oak, Mich.

APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING BURNABLE FLUID AND ENTRAINED AIR TO A BURNER 1 Claim, 1 Drawing Fig.

0.8. 110/7 S, 431/2, 241/60 Int. CI.. F233 7/04 Field of Search 110/7, 7 S, 8, 18; 241/60; 431/2 Primary Examiner-Frederick L. Matteson Assistant Examiner-Robert A. Dua Attorney-Pierce, Scheffler & Parker ABSTRACT: Combustible fluid, which may or may not contain particulate solid material, has a large amount of air homogeneously dispersed throughout a stream of such fluid, whereby it is airlifted as a stream from a source thereof to an incinerator burner nozzle as a light froth.

APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING BURNABLE FLUID AND ENTRAINED AIR TO A BURNER The invention relates to the art of incinerating fluent wastes, and is concerned with a new and useful combination of parts for the transfer of a combustible waste fluid from a holding tank to a burner nozzle of an incinerator, such fluid during said transfer being caused to entrain air within it in the form of tiny bubbles.

Entrained tiny air bubbles, greatly enhance the burning of said fluid as it exits from the burner nozzle. in addition to the entrainment of air, the transfer means allows the passage of particulate solid material that would damage or cause great wear on a mechanical-type pump. Further, such a transfer system transports fluids which cannot be satisfactorily pumped by a mechanical-type pump by reason of the fact that the parts of the mechanical-type pump would be adversely affected giving the mechanical pump a very short life.

Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,375 to John W. Brophy for a full disclosure of a process of incinerating fluent waste materials.

The invention disclosed therein comprises atomizing with a metered amount of primary air, into an elongated space defined in part by refractory walls, a fluid or fluidized waste material including a combustible component, combusting the combustibles of airborne atomized fluid 'waste material, upon its entry into said spaces, thereby forming a burning aeroform stream; surrounding the burning stream with a mantle of air protecting said refractory walls from waste material impingement; and using the air of said mantle for completing the combustion of said combustibles (i.e., as secondary air). To assist in the full and complete decomposition of everything combustible in said aeroforrn stream, the aeroform contents of the elongated space must be maintained at a predetermined superatmospheric pressure for a desired time interval of hightemperature heating. Realization of a desirably extended retention time in the elongated space is promoted by using a minimumamount of atomizing (primary) air and mantle (secondary) air.

Preferably, the atomization of the aforesaid fluid material is greatly accelerated and instant" combustion of its combustibles promoted by (a) preheating the fluid material, at superatmospheric pressure, to at least the vaporizing temperature of a vaporizable component of the fluid material and then (b) ejecting the so-heated stream through an orifice into said elongated space so as to effect atomization of the fluid material including the prompt vaporization of the vaporizable content of the fluid material. The present invention is concerned with an improved mode of delivering an air-entrained stream of fluent waste material to the burner of the Brophy incinerator.

It is an object of this invention to provide a pumping means that will pump fluids through which are dispersed such solid matters that conventional mechanical pumps would have difficulty pumping.

It is another object of this invention to provide a means of entraining air in a fluid to be burned thus enhancing its combustion. A further object of this invention is to provide a pump with no moving parts.

Again, it is a further object of this invention to provide a pump, the parts of which would be uneffected by the fluids being pumped.

According to the present invention there is forced into a stream of fluid waste material a current of air under pressure, the air being introduced into a body of fluid through a porous diaphragm which introduces into the fluid a very large amount of air in the form of very minute bubbles. The so-introduced involved and the combination of arts may be readily understood. A waste fluid B in tank A ows through conduit C to the upper chamber M of an airlift pump D; air under pressure being supplied through pipe G to lower chamber F of the lift pump D and thence through a porous diaphragm E, disposed in lift pump D, causing the fluid in chamber M to be filled with a multitude of small bubbles. The fluid in chamber M having entrained this air, has also changed in density and, therefore, is caused to flow upwards through delivery conduit l emerging at nozzle J (of the burner of an incinerator, not shown) as a bubbly, frothylike fluid mass. As fluid is displaced from chamber M as aforedescribed, more fluid flows from tank A through conduit C to compensate for this displacement and so the process of airlift pumping becomes continuous. The rate of flow in this cycle is regulated by an air control valve H in pump G.

The concept of airlift pumping of fluid waste has been proved to be highly efficient in the particular application herein contemplated.

The waste fluid to be burned, emerging from nozzle J, is partially atomized by reason of its bubble content and therefore lends itself to much more complete atomization by the atomizing low-pressure air that enters chamber K of the bumer through atomizing-air line I... By reason of this more complete atomization, much more efficient burning of the fluid waste takes place in the incinerator. l-leretofore, the waste fluids to be disposed of by burning have as a matter of necessity been pumped at high pressures in order that pressure will be available to blow out solid matter that from time to time collects at the metering valve. In the cycle hereinbefore described, however, a metering valve is not required for controlling the flow rate through the nozzle, and thus the system may operate at much lower pressures. The systems heretofore used have, by reason of the extremely low-flow rate through the nozzle, been found to make impossible the use of a small enough orifice to effect any perceptible atomization. The reason that a small enough orifice could not be provided is because it became plugged with small particles of solid matter that exist in suspension in the fluid wastes to be burned.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for delivering an air-waste fluid froth to an incinerator burner, which comprises, a container source of waste fluid to be burned; a vessel having an upper chamber and a lower chamber, said chambers being separated by a porous air-permeable diaphragm; a conduit communicating between said container and said upper chamber; a source of air under pressure; a conduit communicating between said pressure air source and said lower chamber; an incinerator burner having a nozzle; a delivery pipe communicating between said upper chamber and said nozzle for delivering froth from said upper chamber to said incinerator burner nozzle, said nozzle being axially disposed in the mouth of an air chamber adapted to jet atomizing air into a stream of fluid waste material being delivered to the burn er through said nozzle, whereby a froth of air bubbles dispersed in fluid waste material is further atomized by dispersion in such jettedatomizing air. 

1. Apparatus for delivering an air-waste fluid froth to an incinerator burner, which comprises, a container source of waste fluid to be burned; a vessel having an upper chamber and a lower chamber, said chambers being separated by a porous air-permeable diaphragm; a conduit communicating between said container and said upper chamber; a source of air under pressure; a conduit communicating between said pressure air source and said lower chamber; an incinerator burner having a nozzle; a delivery pipe communicating between said upper chamber and said nozzle for delivering froth from said upper chamber to said incinerator burner nozzle, said nozzle being axially disposed in the mouth of an air chamber adapted to jet atomIzing air into a stream of fluid waste material being delivered to the burner through said nozzle, whereby a froth of air bubbles dispersed in fluid waste material is further atomized by dispersion in such jettedatomizing air. 